8 MODIFICATIONS OP FRUIT. [BOOK i. 



placenta, but also to the endocarp of certain Cinchonads and 

 Rueworts, to the seed-coat of Jasminum., of Orchids, and 

 others, and even to the perianth of Carex. A very remarkable 

 instance of the aril is to be found in the nutmeg, in which it 

 forms the part called the mace surrounding the seed. It is 

 never developed until after the fertilisation of the ovule. It 

 will be further and much more particularly treated of, when 

 speaking of the seed. 



Having thus explained the structure of the pericarp, it is 

 in the next place necessary to inquire into the nature of its 

 modifications, which in systematic botany are of considerable 

 importance. It is, on the one hand, very much to be regretted 

 that the terms employed in this department of the science, 

 which is that of Carpology, have been often used so vaguely 

 as to have no exact meaning ; while, on the other hand, they 

 have been so exceedingly multiplied by various writers, that 

 the language of carpology is a mere chaos. In practice but 

 a small number of terms is actually employed; but for collec- 

 tions of fruits, or minute carpological arrangements, a large 

 number is desirable ; and it cannot be doubted that, if it were 

 not for the excessive inconvenience of overburdening the sci- 

 ence with words, it would conduce to clearness of description 

 if botanists would agree to make use of some precise and 

 uniform nomenclature. 



What, for instance, can be more embarrassing than to find 

 the term nut applied to the superior plurilocular pericarp of 

 Verbena, the gland of Corylus, and the achenia of Rosa and 

 Borago: and that of berry to the fleshy envelope of Taxus, 

 the polyspermous inferior fruit of Ribes, the succulent calyx 

 of Blitum, and several other things ? 



So much discordance, indeed, exists in the application of 

 terms expressive of the modifications of fruit, that it is quite 

 indispensable to give the definitions of some of the most 

 eminent writers upon the subject in their own words, in 

 order that the meaning attached by those authors to carpo- 

 logical terms, when employed by themselves, may be clearly 

 understood. 



In the phraseology of writers antecedent to Linn&us, the 



